Physical parametrisation of fire-spotting for operational fire spread models: response analysis with a model based on the Level Set Method
Inderpreet Kaur1, Anton Butenko2,3, and Gianni Pagnini4,51Department of Atmospheric Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany 2Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 3Institute of Geography, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany 4BCAM–Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Bilbao, Basque Country – Spain 5Ikerbasque–Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Basque Country – Spain
Received: 06 Feb 2018 – Accepted for review: 17 Mar 2018 – Discussion started: 19 Mar 2018
Abstract. Fire-spotting is often responsible for a dangerous flare up in the wildfire and causes secondary ignitions isolated from the primary fire zone leading to perilous situations. In this paper a complete physical parametrisation of fire-spotting is presented within a formulation aimed to include random processes into operational fire spread models. This formulation can be implemented into existing operational models as a post-processing scheme at each time step, without calling for any major changes in the original framework. In particular, the efficacy of this formulation has already been shown for wildfire simulators based on an Eulerian moving interface method, namely the Level Set Method (LSM) that forms the baseline of the operational software WRF-SFIRE, and for wildfire simulators based on a Lagrangian front tracking technique, namely the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) that forms the baseline of the operational software FOREFIRE. The simple and computationally less expensive parametrisation includes the important parameters necessary for describing the landing behavior of the firebrands. The results from different simulations with a simple model based on the LSM highlight the response of the parametrisation to varying fire intensities, wind conditions and different firebrand radii. The contribution of the firebrands towards increasing the fire perimeter varies according to different concurrent conditions and the simulation results prove to be in agreement with the physical processes. Among the many rigorous approaches available in literature to model the firebrand transport and distribution, the approach presented here proves to be simple yet versatile for application to operational fire spread models. Citation:
Kaur, I., Butenko, A., and Pagnini, G.: Physical parametrisation of fire-spotting for operational fire spread models: response analysis with a model based on the Level Set Method, Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2018-33, in review, 2018.
Inderpreet Kaur et al.
Inderpreet Kaur et al.
Inderpreet Kaur et al.
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